At first you might think you’ve fallen asleep watching Boardwalk Empire yet again (which reminds me, Steve Buscemi is really nice when he shows up in your dreams) upon hearing that not only is bootlegging whiskey a living, viable business in modern times, but that there’s a special Moonshine Task Force ins states like Alabama designed to go after anyone making and selling illegal hooch. [More]

Recording artist Prince wants some of his fans to give him $22 million. Emphasis on the “some” — just the 22 people his piracy lawsuit accuses of bootlegging his live performances and publishing them on the Internet. [More]

Diversify your money. My grandfather was a bootlegger in the 1920s. He had an old Tin Lizzy that he used to drive around rural Illinois, carrying his wares under a tarp on the back. Unsurprisingly, given that Prohibition was ongoing, these were cash-only transactions, and he would often drive along in that old rusty machine across the backwoods of Illinois, in the time before there was even many paved roads….He kept all of his money in a local bank, the building of which was still standing when I was a child (though it has since been torn down)…Most of the businesses that the bank owner was invested in were bankrupt by the end of 1930, but the bank owner kept trying to play the market and make the money back. Well, in late 1931, word got around that the bank had almost no money at all, and lots of people went to the bank to try to collect. The bank just shut their doors, locked them up, and the bank owner left town with what remained of everyone’s money. My grandfather happened to be out on a run then, and when he came back to find himself in financial ruin, it changed his life forever.